Journal of Big Data Research
Editorial policies
How manuscripts are reviewed, how decisions are reached, what authors are required to disclose, and how the published record is corrected. Each section states the rule the journal applies.
- Review model
- Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
- Reviewers
- Normally at least two independent subject-matter experts
- License
- CC BY 4.0, copyright retained by authors
- Standards
- Aligned with COPE guidance on publication ethics
Peer review
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.
Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts. Authors who want double-blind review say so at submission; the Instructions for Authors set out how to prepare an anonymized manuscript.
Reviewers assess the contribution a manuscript claims and the evidence supporting it, using the standards of evidence set out in the Aims and Scope for each kind of contribution. Manuscripts and reviews are treated as confidential documents.
Decisions
- Basis of decision
- Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
- Independence
- Decisions remain independent of fees, services, memberships, and editorial roles.
- Outcomes
- Accept, minor revision, major revision, or decline. Authors receive the reviewers' comments with the decision.
Editorial independence, conflicts and recusal
Independence from payment and role
Editorial decisions remain independent of fees, services, memberships, and editorial roles. Payment of the article processing charge follows acceptance and has no bearing on it. Holding an editorial or reviewing role confers no advantage in the review or acceptance of that person's own manuscripts.
Declared interests
Authors declare financial and non-financial interests that a reader could reasonably consider relevant, including funding, employment, consultancy, patents, and access arrangements for the data used. The declaration is published with the article.
Recusal
Editors and reviewers disclose conflicts and step aside where one exists. Editors recuse themselves from decisions on their own submissions and on manuscripts from close collaborators or their own institution; those manuscripts are handled independently by another editor.
Confidentiality
Manuscripts under consideration are confidential. Reviewers and editors do not share, retain or use unpublished material. After submitting a review, reviewers should securely delete downloaded manuscript files and must not retain or use unpublished material.
Authorship and contribution
Authorship is limited to those who made a substantial contribution to the work and who approve the submitted version and accept responsibility for it. Everyone who meets the criteria is listed; nobody who does not is. Contributors who assisted without meeting the criteria are named in the acknowledgments with their permission.
The author list and order are settled before submission. A change after submission requires the written agreement of every author, including any being added or removed, and a statement of the reason.
The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal, for confirming that all authors have approved the submission, and for responding to questions about the work after publication.
Use of AI tools
- Authors
- Generative AI tools do not meet the criteria for authorship and are not listed as authors. Where such a tool was used in preparing the manuscript, the use is disclosed in the methods or acknowledgments, with the tool and its role stated. The authors remain responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the whole work.
- Reviewers
- Reviewers must obtain journal permission before using AI to assist with a review. Any permitted use must be disclosed, and confidential manuscript content must not be uploaded where confidentiality cannot be assured.
Research standards
What every empirical manuscript carries
Data
Availability statement
Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement. Where access is restricted, the statement explains the restriction and any permitted access procedure. Describe how the data was collected or assembled, what it covers, and the preparation applied before analysis.
Human participants
Ethical basis
Research on human participants or on data about identifiable people reports its ethical basis: the approving committee and reference where approval was granted, the documented basis where a study was exempt, and the terms of use where the work is a secondary analysis of data already collected. Consent and privacy arrangements are described.
Clinical trials
Prospective registration
Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.
Research and publication integrity
Originality
Manuscripts are submitted to this journal alone and report work that has not been published elsewhere. Submissions are screened with Crossref Similarity Check, powered by iThenticate. A similarity report is read in context by an editor, who considers what the matching text is and where it sits, rather than applied as an automatic threshold.
Preprints
Posting a preprint to a recognized server before or during review is permitted and is not treated as prior publication. Authors disclose the preprint and its identifier at submission, and are asked to link the published version once it appears.
Misconduct
Fabrication, falsification, image or data manipulation, plagiarism, undisclosed duplicate submission and improper authorship are investigated following COPE guidance. The journal contacts the corresponding author first, and where necessary the authors' institution. A manuscript under investigation is held until the matter is resolved.
Reporting a concern
Concerns about a published article or about the conduct of the review may be sent to the editorial office at info@openaccesspub.org, with the article identifier and the specific issue. The journal acknowledges the concern and states what it will do next.
Corrections, retractions and appeals
The published version is the version of record. Where an error affects the interpretation of the work, a correction notice is published and linked to the article, so a later reader sees both. Where the findings are no longer reliable, a retraction notice states what was wrong and who requested it; the article itself stays available and is marked, so the record of what was published remains legible.
An expression of concern may be published while a matter is being investigated, and is resolved by a correction, a retraction, or a notice that the concern was not substantiated.
Authors who consider a decision mistaken may appeal to the editorial office, stating the specific point at issue and responding to the reviewers' reasoning. An appeal is considered by an editor who was not responsible for the original decision. A single appeal per manuscript is considered, and the outcome of that appeal is final.
Related policies
- Withdrawal
- The complete withdrawal policy is stated on the Article Processing Charges page, which is where authors should read it before contacting the editorial office.
- Copyright and reuse
- Licensing, copyright retention and reuse conditions are set out on the Copyright and License page.
- Data and permissions
- Repository guidance and permissions for reused material are on the Data Archiving and Permissions page.
- Preservation
- Digital preservation arrangements are described on the Indexing page.
Preparing a submission
These policies apply to every manuscript. The scope page states what the journal publishes and the evidence each kind of contribution carries; the author guidance covers preparation and the required statements.
Guidance by role
- Authors
- Instructions for Authors
- Editors
- Editor guidelines
- Reviewers
- Reviewer guidelines
- Editorial office
- info@openaccesspub.org
Digital preservation
This journal’s content is committed to Portico, a not-for-profit digital-preservation archive run by ITHAKA (the organization behind JSTOR). As articles are deposited they enter Portico’s permanent archive, so the scholarly record stays available for the long term — even if a title one day ceases to publish. Read our preservation policy.